In the 1850s, the early days of photography, even an admirer of the new art like Frederic de Mercey believed that photographs were best suited to " straight visual documentation" and not for artistic subjects. In other words, photography would be a boon for travelers or anyone who had to record something precisely. But art, giving life to an image, that was best left to "real" artists. The pioneering French photographer, Edouard Baldus (1813-1889) proved the naysayers wrong. He took some of the most compelling landscape and architecture photographs of his time. His aesthetic sensibility and technical innovations place him now, but not then (he died almost penniless) in the league of archival photographer greats.

Surprisingly, some of the most compelling photographs of the period were taken on the grounds of de Mercey’s Chateau de la Faloise in a tiny village north of Paris. For the first time, united in one exhibition along with other 19th-century leading photographers, the de la Falaise landscapes will be on view in a new exhibition: "Edward Baldus: Landscape and Leisure in Early French Photography," at the Sterling & Francis Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass. From October 4- December 27.

This is an intriguing show that required considerable curator sleuthing to decipher who the people in Baldus’ photographs are, what were they doing, and what technical process he used to create these rare and quite beautiful landscape photographs. Curator James A. Ganz did extensive research on de Mercey, a painter and mid-level administrator, his country house, and members of his household. "These images give the sense of stumbling on scenes from a lost novel, yet the characters are real," says Ganz. Writing in La Lumiere, the journal of the first photographic society in the 19th-century, Ernest Lacan asserted that Baldus’ photographs "had a rare perfection, tonal beauty, and incredible fineness of detail…" The Clark’s new show is a landmark exhibition finally presenting some of the best photographic works of the era.